Night of the Demons – Night of the Evil Dead

I have to confess to watching 'Night of the Demons 2' some time in the mid nineties.  And I wasn't that fussed for it.  Despite most of my DVD collection being made up of horror films, that one didn't leave much of an impression on me.  Perhaps that would explain why it's taken me over twenty years to watch the original.  Now I so wish I'd watched this one first.

'Night of the Demons' takes place on Halloween where a group of American college students all go to a party arranged by two - er, 'dodgy' - sisters in the infamous 'Hull House.' However, they get more than just a few plastic spiders and cardboard dangling skeletons when they get there, as the two sisters have 'darker' plans for them.

Many people may see a few screenshots from some of the scenes and think that it's a 'zombie film.' You'll seen plenty of undead-like people clamouring for human flesh.  However, although this does happen, the story is so much more than that.  It reminded me more of the 'Evil Dead' films as the hapless teens are not so much infected by bites and turned into brainless, staggering, flesh-hungry corpses, but instead they're all more vicious and enjoying the malice they can inflict on the remaining humans.

There's plenty of (practical!) gore, as with many films made in the glorious eighties, before CGI took over and made everything look just a little bit too 'crisp' for us horror purists' liking!  Plus the characters actually behave in ways you may not expect.  I'm sure when you see the line up, if you've ever seen any horror film you'll start guessing who's going to live and who's going to die.  However, don't be too sure with this one.  There are some 'character development' paths that you probably won't see coming, so I won't go into too much detail here for fear of spoiling things for you.

If you like classic zombie movies then you'll probably like this.  If you like 'Evil Dead' style movies where the antagonists are slightly more devious than your average flesh-eating ghoul then this is definitely one for you.  And, if you're just a fan of classic eighties horror B-movies then this should certainly be in your collection.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that